Street-railway-track cleaner



(No Model.)

J. A. LEWIS.

STREET RAILWAY TRACK CLEANER.

No. 399,421. Patented Mar. 12, 1889.

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lJNlTlEl) STATES errant rricE.

JAMES A. LEVIS, OF BINGIIAHTON, NIUV YORK.

STREE'T-RAILWAY-TRACK CLEANER.

SPECIFZCATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 399,421, dated March12, 1889.

Application filed February 15, 1888. Serial No. 264,15L. (N0 model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES A. LEWIS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Binghamton, in the county of Broome and State of New York,have invented certain new and uscf ul. Improvements inStreet-Railway-Track Cleaners and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and toletters or figures of reference marked thereon,which form a partof thisspecification.

Sim ilar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The nature of this invention is that of an improved track-cleaner forstreet-railways; and the improvements consist, first, in the means forraising, lowering, and carrying it at any required. height; second, inthe method of its attachment to the ear; third, in a means of wideningand narrowing the sweep of the cleaner, as required.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is the plan of the cleaner asseen from the under side. Fig. 2 shows the dog-wheel. with a toothedratchet upon its upper face fasten ed upon the shaft ll, upon which thechain winds, which serves to raise and hold up the scrapers. Fig 3 is adetailed representation of the means .01 extending and contracting thesweep of the scrapers. Fig. 4: shows the lower end of the shaft uponwhich the chain winds for raising and lowering the scrapers, the dog,dog-wheel, and box, with the chain wound on the shaft. llig. 5 is an.elevation in perspective, showing the means of attaching to the floor ofthe car, of raising-and lowcring the scraper, and the shaft and crankfor effecting this purpose.

S S, Fig. 1, are scrapers, made, 'n'eferably, of shear-steel, clamped atthe upper inside corner between the bars E and F. The scrapers maybemade with a detachable shoe atthe bottom, which can be replaced whenworn, but as this is a common dcviceit is not shown in the drawings.Each of the scrapers has attached to it at the top a chain, C, runningover the pulley 1, for raising and lowering the scraper. The chainsextend to the mid dle of the car, coming together as shown in Fig. 1,and are attached to the chain C, which winds around the shaft 13. (Shownin Figs. 4 and 5.) It is obvious that by this arrangement the scrapersare raised or lowered simultaneou sly and equally.

The bars or braces E and F are pivoted to the hangers G upon the underside of the ear and furnish a hanging support for the scrapers bothstrong and flexible. The sweep of the scrapers is regulated by the innerbars, F F, which are made in two sections each and joined together, asshown at H, Fig. 1, and two sections are shown in larger size in Fig. 3.The toothed faces fitting snugly into each other are held firmlytogether by the bolt ex tending through the slot f in them, so that theymaybe extended until but a single tooth on each laps on the other, orshortened until the teeth lap nearly past each other. By means of thislengthening and contracting arrangement light snow may be removed theshort distance necessary to clear the track, or heavier snow may beswept away as far as required. It will be observed that the slot fextends nearlythe entire length of the tooth portion of the bar F. Itwill thus be seen that the necessity of entirely removing theclamping-bolt when it is desired to ad just the length of the bar F willbe obviated,and such adjustment is therefore greatly facilitated.

At the front end of the ear, either inside or outside of the upright endof the car, as desired, is the upright shaft B, having a crank, 13, atthe top for winding up the shaft. At the level of the floor on thisshaft is the dogwheel A, (shown in detail in Fig. 2,) covered by the boxL, through the top 'of which the shaft 13 passes. Inside the box is thedog D, Fig. 4:, pivoted at 7, with the tooth of the dog resting in theratchet on the dog wheel. Jointed to the other end of the dog is a pinor bolt, S, extending up through the top of the box, having at the top abroad head, and upon the bolt, between the head of the bolt and the topof the box, is a coiled-wire spring, S, acting upon the bolt-head andholding it up, thus keeping the tooth down in the ratchet. The operationof this raisin and lowering device will be readily understood byobserving that when the crank 13 is turned the chain (l winds upon thelower end of the shaft and raises the scrapers. The dog held down uponthe ratchet of the dog-wheel by means of the coiled-wire spring S,lifting at the other end, serves to rigidly hold the scraping mechanismin any desired position. To lower the scraper the driver presses hisfoot upon the bolt-head, bearing down upon the bolt and spring, thuslifting the tooth of the dog and releasing the dog-wheel.

By means of the bracing-bars E and F a steady and strong support to thescrapers is secured, and any width of sweep may be had by taking up orletting out at the toothed joint II.

Having thus described my invention and its construction, what I claim asnew, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a track-cleaner for street-railway cars, the track-scrapers S,suspended by chains running over pulleys and which are connectedtogether near the shaft upon which they wind up, in combination withbrace-bars E and F,

for holding the scrapers in position, the inner brace-bar, I having atoothed and slotted splice by which the sweep of the cleaner may beextended or contracted, substantially as shown and described.

2. In a track-cleaner for street-railways, the combination, withtrack-scrapers, of bars or braces, between the forward ends of which thetrack-scrapers are clamped, and hangers depending from the bottom of thecar and having the rear ends of the bars or braces pivoted thereto,substantially as shown and described.

8. In a track-cleaner for street-railways, the combination, with trackscrapers, bars, or braces, between the forward ends of which thetrack-scrapers are clamped, and hangers depending from the bottom of thecar and having the rear ends of the bars or braces pivoted thereto, of asuspending-chain, as C, for each of the scrapers, running over a pulleysecured to the car-bottom and extending diagonally toward each other, achain, such as C, connecting the rear extremities of the chains C, and avertical shaft upon which chain C winds, all substantially as and forthe purposes herein set forth.

at. In a track-cleaner for street-railways, the combination, withtrack-sc1*a1.iers,of bars or braces situated in pairs, between theforward ends of which the track-scrapers are clamped, and the inner barof each of which pairs has a toothed and slotted splice, substantiallyas and for the purposes herein set forth.

5. In a track-cleaner for street-railways, trackscrapers and means forsuspending the same, in combination with bars or braces for holding thescrapers in position, situated in pairs, the inner bar of each of whichis formed in two parts and with internieshing teeth at the point ofjunction, and also with an elongated slot, and a pin or bolt extendingthrough the said slot and adapted to clamp the two portions of the innerbar together.

JAMES A. LEIVIS.

In presence of NERI PINE, II. C. '001).

